During a 2014 Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit, Jerry Seinfeld was asked a question about his history with humor. The commenter wrote, "What was it that made you laugh the hardest that you can remember?" Although he initially made a joke about discovering flatulence as a boy, he later refocused his answer. For whatever reason, Seinfeld chose to focus on the scenes that he found funniest during the writing process, rather than when they were being performed and filmed.
"Larry [David] and I used to have gigantic laughs writing the show," recalled Seinfeld. "I remember one of the first times — when Newman had to take the stand in a courtroom scene, and I believe Kramer cross-examines him, we laughed pretty hard writing that." This comment refers to a scene from Season 4, Episode 4 ("The Ticket") and is a noteworthy reminiscence given how much of the scene's comedic value comes from the performances of Michael Richards and Wayne Knight.
The second scene Seinfeld cited as having made him laugh particularly hard as it was being written is an absolute classic "Seinfeld" scene. In fact, for many fans, this scene comes from one of the best episodes of "Seinfeld." "I also remember writing the last speech of [Season 5, Episode 14] 'The Marine Biologist,' where George tells the story of finding the golf ball in the blowhole of the whale," Seinfeld wrote. "That was a really, really long hard laugh when we wrote that." Notably, Jason Alexander, the actor who portrayed George Costanza, has also recalled the process of developing that particular scene before (via Television Academy Foundation).
Of course, if you're a "Seinfeld" fan, you already know that those long, hard laughs were maintained and even amplified when the sequences made it from writing to execution.
